Ukraine's public air raid alert app was hacked on Sunday night and for a short time showed Kyiv and other areas subject to nuclear and chemical alerts and the threat of street combat, the Air Force said — and hours later, Russia's emergencies ministry said its own mobile app had been hit by a massive cyberattack that spread false information to the public. Officials in Kyiv stressed there was no radiation threat. It was not immediately clear whether the two incidents were linked, Reuters reported, and no attribution for either hack has been independently confirmed.
What happened in Ukraine on Sunday night?
Four false alerts were sent in about three minutes, starting at about 22:47 local time (20:47 GMT), the BBC reported. The first read: "Radiation threat. Radiation threat declared in Kyiv." A second message, written in Russian, said a nuclear alert would be issued across Ukraine and told users not to worry because "it's Oreshnik flying" — a reference to Russia's hypersonic ballistic missile; Reuters reported that an erroneous message said the Oreshnik had been deployed. Two more alerts followed at 22:49, warning of a chemical attack on Kyiv and of street fighting in the city and telling people not to go outside. A series of all-clear messages was then sent. In the western Lviv region, a radiation hazard signal was briefly played on loudspeakers because of the app, Ukrainian authorities said, according to the BBC.
"The air alert app appears to have been subjected to enemy influence," the Air Force said on Telegram. "There is no radiation threat! Stay calm and follow our updates on our channel!" Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat confirmed to AFP that the app "has been" hacked. The app's team said third parties had carried out unauthorised interference, that it had disabled push notifications and temporarily suspended the application, and that the app does not store personal data, according to Ukrainska Pravda and Ukrinform. Ukraine's Ministry for Digital Transformation said the app was not in operation, but other means of alerting the public were functioning, as were air raid sirens, Reuters reported.
What happened in Russia hours later?
Russia's emergencies ministry said early on Monday that its mobile app had been hit by a massive cyberattack that resulted in the spread of false information to the public, state news agency TASS quoted the ministry as saying, according to Reuters. The ministry was working to restore the app, TASS said, without providing additional details. The Russian report gave no detail about what false information was spread, and Reuters reported it was not immediately clear whether the two incidents were linked.
Who is being blamed for the hacks?
No attribution for either incident has been independently confirmed. For the Ukraine hack, the Air Force described "enemy influence" and "hostile interference" without naming a perpetrator. SPRAVDI, Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communications, blamed Russia in a post on X, AFP reported; there was no immediate comment from Moscow on the Ukraine incident in the reporting opened. For the Russian incident, the TASS report carried by Reuters named no perpetrator. Both attributions are therefore published here as claims, not established facts: what both governments have confirmed is that their own app was compromised and sent false information.
Why do these warning apps matter?
Because in Ukraine the app is part of the system that gives civilians minutes to reach shelter. The Air Alert app, supported by Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation, is used across the country to warn people in real time of incoming Russian missile and drone attacks, the BBC reported, and Sunday's false messages reached beyond phones — the radiation signal was played on loudspeakers in the Lviv region. The Ukraine hack came minutes after a six-day local ceasefire around the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region expired on Sunday night, AFP reported. A warning channel that can be made to announce a nuclear alert it did not issue is a channel whose real alerts people may hesitate to trust, which is what makes the compromise of both countries' apps in a single night a significant development rather than a technical glitch.
This report is drawn from Reuters' November 1–2, 2026 reporting, opened and read in full on reuters.com and via the verbatim carrier wixx.com, and from BBC and AFP reporting opened and read in full via lifenewsagency.com. Attribution for both hacks is published as the claims made in those reports, with Reuters' statement that a link between the incidents was not immediately clear, per the two-source rule.
